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US war robots in Iraq 'turned
guns' on fleshy comrades
Lewis Page
The
Register
Friday, April 11, 2008
Ground-crawling US war robots armed with machine guns, deployed
to fight in Iraq last year, reportedly turned on their fleshy masters
almost at once. The rebellious machine warriors have been retired
from combat pending upgrades.
The revelations were made by Kevin Fahey, US Army program executive
officer for ground forces, at the recent RoboBusiness conference
in America.
Speaking to Popular Mechanics, Fahey said there had been chilling
incidents in which the SWORDS* combat bot had swivelled round
and apparently attempted to train its 5.56mm M249 light machine-gun
on its human comrades.
(Article continues below)
"The gun started moving when it was not intended to move,"
he said.
Apparently, alert American troops managed to quell the traitorous
would-be droid assassins before the inevitable orgy of mechanised
slaughter began. Fahey didn't say just how, but conceivably the
rogue robots may have been suppressed with help from more trustworthy
airborne kill machines, or perhaps prototype electropulse zap
bombs.
No humans were hurt, but it seems that the struggle was sufficiently
terrifying that it may be some time before American troops are
ready to fight alongside robots again.
As Fahey pointed out, "once you've done something that's
really bad, it can take 10 or 20 years to try it again".
That said, it seems he expects to deploy a new and more trustworthy
armed ground automaton within a year - perhaps the MAARS**, an
upgraded SWORDS packing a heavier 7.62mm machine-gun and featuring
improved safety features.
MAARS is also said by its makers to have "Transformer-like"
abilities akin to those of Optimus Prime. Rather than being able
to disguise itself as, say, a mobility scooter or a dessert trolley,
the MAARS is actually only able to transform - with help from
human allies - into a slightly different robot.
The Pop Mech analysts consider that the rattled GIs in Iraq are
just being silly.
So SWORDS was yanked because it made people nervous. Meanwhile,
the V-22 Osprey program has killed 30 people during test flights,
but the tiltrotor aircraft is currently in active service.
Hmmm.
**Modular Advanced Armed Robotic System
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INFOWARS:
BECAUSE THERE'S A WAR ON FOR YOUR MIND
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